Key Idea: Tap Into The Universal Power

Universals open the mind in powerful ways. Michael Novak examines the motivation of people like a thought-leader like Albert Black, an inventor like Glenn Walser, and risk-takers like Lupe Fraga and Jose Navarro. All are examples of people who were deeply motivated by their belief systems. Throughout the history of the USA, Judeo-Christian beliefs gave rise to rapid scientific and business breakthroughs. More...

Key Question:

So many people, especially business people, talk about an all-powerful, all-present, all-knowing Creator-Sustainer, often referred to as God, Allah, Yahweh...

Yet, business, like science, seems to work just fine independent of each other and independent of religious expressions. It seems that there is very little that is shared between the three. It is rare to hear lectures or read articles that align the conceptual frameworks of business, religion and science. As belief systems, these three disciplines are all very different and an integrative understanding seems rather elusive.

Yet, as we have seen in this episode, business people (and even scientists) make frequent references to their God for whom they often credit their inspiration and guidance.

And, in Novak's research, he finds that Judaeo-Christian belief systems laid foundations in the USA that gave rise to rapid advances within science-and-discovery and to business-and-enterprise. It laid the foundations for belief that one can tap into that universal power and be guided.

Q: What is that Universal Power? How does one tap into it?

A: We do not presume to provide an answer when there are thousands of books and millions of pages about the issue. We have discovered, however, those three universals shared by religion, science, and business (See Key Idea #2). These universals are the first principles by which we use to define this show.

In summary, the first principle that defines our humanity is our urge to create order and its most basic function, a simple perfection, is continuity. The second principle is relationality and its perfection is symmetry. And, the third is dynamics and its perfection is harmony.

Every scientific and religious assertion, both seeking to understand and define the universal, begins with the same first principle and evolves within its own understanding to the second and third. This is also the basis of the value chain, the heart of business. The more perfect a moment or an experience is, OR the more perfected a thing or system is, the more valuable it becomes.

Think about it

What universals guide you? Are these your first principles? What is the source of the insights? Are they truly universal or are these insights particular and historically oriented?

When do you think about universals? ...in the shower? ...in your dreams? Though the subject is more often the domain of theoretical scientists and theologians, isn't it open to everyone?

How do universals include business practices? If a concept is universal, how does it apply to what we do each hour and minute of a day?

How does one's faith statement impact the way business is practiced? Can you see a path to a "higher perfection" of your products and services? Do you have a systematic and coherent explanation of life and for progress?

Editor's comment: We believe that this notion of "tapping into the universal" is both a path for self-understanding and for the evolution of one's business. For more, our first principles are here.

Clip from: Innovation and Invention with Michael Novak

Washington, DC and around the world: What drives people to challenge the status quo? ...to go out into the unknown? ...to try to create things that have never been seen before? Why do these people work so hard and stretch so far? Everybody talks about them, saying things like, "Crazy!" "They'll kill themselves." "They're in a world of their own." Yet, these daring people, driven by principles and dreams, are changing our world for the better.

We turned to scholar, Michael Novak, of the American Enterprise Institute for insights. Novak would like to see this innovative spirit take root throughout the world. And, it is.

Automated Foods, Incorporated

Tap Into The Universal Power

HATTIE: OK. Do you think there's a connection between faith, and I mean faith in something bigger than yourself, faith in God, and innovation?

MICHAEL: There certainly is in the sense that -- and economic historians who are not religious have observed this, that what gave Jewish and Christian civilizations over thousands of years, the confidence to take risks and invent new things, because they felt they weren't violating taboo. Nothing terrible is going to happen to them -- if they went outside the known patterns of nature to discover new patterns. The reason they did that is because they had belief in a creator who created the world at a certain time with a purpose and that the world was going somewhere.

GLENN WALSER: While I was driving, this vision came through my head of how mechanically I could do this at a much faster rate using less employees. And I said, 'Thank you Lord, give me some money,' and he did through this friend of mine and we started. And what we really did is we did something that no one else could do or had done before.

MICHAEL: The idea of progress is Jewish and Christian. It's not Greek. It's not Roman. It's not Hindu ...Buddhist. It's not animist. It's specific. And having this faith in God has had this impact, even among people who don't now share that faith in God, they still have learned the faith in progress that is a gift of that faith.

LUPE FRAGA: We are in a place that really means very much to me.

HATTIE: (Voiceover) Lupe Fraga, owner of Tejas Office took us to the neighborhood he grew up in and spoke about the power of faith in his life. He's not unusual.

LUPE: And I'm really grateful for the faith that I have been given. I think it's a gift. I try to live my life everyday in that way and so this is why this church is so important to me because I think this is where the foundation was laid.

HATTIE: (Voiceover) Jose and Louis Navarro have built the productive pharmacy chain in the U.S. Working seven days a week never kept Jose from church.

JOSE NAVARRO: You had to go to church every Sunday. There is no doubt of us skipping church -- church was something that you had to make time for. It was -- maybe it was at night after we finished with the deliveries. But everybody went to church on Sunday. It was something that my mother was adamant about and she's still adamant about it now.

MICHAEL: A great many people in business have become more religious because of business activity. Why? Because they are aware of how many things can go wrong. How easy it is to lose your shirt. And they find that the belief in God they have gives them a certain objectivity. It's as if they lift themselves outside of time to see things as God might, or they try to. And therefore see things with a greater objectivity. And when chance and contingency break in their favor, when things work out right, they know they didn't control all that. That's due to something else.